How Murdoch stalked Dow

Rupert Murdoch had coveted The Wall Street Journal for more than a decade. This is how he took over the group that owns it

HE had suffered repeated rebuffs from key Dow Jones shareholders. Many commentators were either sniffy or downright rude about the idea that Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-born media baron behind the Simpsons and Britain's Sun newspaper, should become the custodian of the company that controlled the revered Wall Street Journal.

After all, the Journal was not only the second biggest-selling newspaper in America. It was a 118-year-old national institution.

But as Murdoch travelled in his private plane from California last Monday, he was quietly confident that he was on the brink of success.

Stopping in Colorado to pick up Stanley Shuman of Allen & Co, a specialist media-investment bank, Murdoch flew on to New York. He quietly reflected that his mission to buy Dow Jones was nearing the end.

It had been almost three months since his $5 billion (£2.4 billion) offer for the company had been made public. But Murdoch